Will keep you awake
My first show of 2023 (and Sadler's Wells closing show of their 2022 season) was Sleeping Beauty, the 10th anniversary production of Matthew Bourne’s (and Tchaikovsky’s!) original production there.
With settings dated ‘1890’ (the start), ‘1911’ (coming of age) ‘2011’ (the awakening) and ‘yesterday’ (denouement) Bourne has chosen some fine eras for costume (even if ‘yesterday’, and indeed ‘2011’ are rather more glam rock than I recently recall). He plays games, of course, with the narrative – but then ballet (and opera) are not famed for their coherent narrative arcs – and if the ‘fairies’ are also vampires (how else is the chief good fairy to extend Princess Aurora’s gardener squeeze’s life for the necessary 100 years of slumber?) – well, what matters?
Bourne, in his choreography, has eschewed the fireworks – Aurora dances mainly in bare feet, so no elaborate (and damaging) point work here, and it is (mainly) a move from one elaborate dance scene to another, although there are both well performed solos and pas de deux.
The dancing, from the New Adventures Company, features both dancers new to the roles as well as some reprising their original production roles. Whilst there are only 18 on stage it seems, at times, many more (with doubling, the Wicked Fairy and her son are played by the same dancer, for instance) – and the standard is what you’d expect from a major London Theatre.
[Oh, and a shout-out for the ninja puppeteers creating an endearing and very agile baby, and the set designers!]